A priest in exile. A healer with no faith left to give. And a mountain that remembers everything.
In the autumn shadow of 1921, Meg wants only peace.
A year has passed since she reclaimed her grandmother's cabin and began healing the wounded lives of those who still whisper her name with both gratitude and fear. She is no longer just the "witch" of Biddle Creek-but the quiet guardian of a mountain that watches, waits, and sometimes answers.
When Father Thomas Doherty arrives from Ireland to take up a long-abandoned mission, he brings with him a rigid faith, a broken soul, and a secret he refuses to name. Haunted by the part he played in a child's death during the Irish struggle for independence, Thomas believes the mountain is where he must redeem himself.
But the Mountain has its own intentions.
As illness returns to the hollow and old prejudices flare anew, Meg and Thomas find themselves caught in a slow-burning trial-not of law, but of belief. The ruins of the chapel hold more than dust, and something beneath the soil is stirring.
In a land where sacred texts and folk magic run side by side, they must each decide:
What makes a thing holy? And who decides what should be saved?
Fans of
The Once and Future Witches
,
The Essex Serpent
and Appalachian gothic fiction will be drawn into this quiet, powerful tale of grief, belief, and uneasy grace.